Daily Gratitude: It’s so important that we find the courage to “step out” when exciting or new things come our way. I finally learned this and regret that I lacked that brave spark within for so many decades. I guess, though, I didn’t really lack it – it was just buried by all the baggage of my childhood that took me forever to discard. Kind of like a hoarder who eventually has their house cleaned out only to find $10,000 somewhere at the bottom of the pile. It had been there all the time but no one, especially not the hoarder, knew it. This is an excellent reason to always be in the process of decluttering and getting rid of all that’s not needed – the physical AND mental clutter. There are tons of articles about how to declutter your house and your belongings but how many articles do you see about going through all the crap in your mind. It shouldn’t be hard to visualize your mind like a teenage boy’s closet. Everything he owns (except his electronics of course) is crammed into that closet. Clean and dirty mixed together. Fresh and smelly on the floor in one pile. And then there’s the shelf or shelves. What’s loaded onto them? What did the closet even look like long before? When was the last time you took inventory of your mind? Listing your habits, your beliefs, your loves, your relationships, and if you’re into IFS, your parts? I will bet the answer for most of you is never. Why not start now. You may think you know what you want to keep and discard but until you list them out (take that inventory), you’ll never really know. And worse yet, without a list it’s extremely difficult, if not impossible, to find the interconnections. What thought or belief is related to another and what thought or belief is connected to a habit? It’s those interconnections that can do you in. This takes quite a bit of effort and I think that’s why most people don’t do it. But the benefits are phenomenal if you take inventory and then examine it….and then finally take action to revise what it is you see that needs fixing or changing.